


wisdom's daughter

by mypetersburg



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Annabeth Chase-centric (Percy Jackson), Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Post-Tartarus (Percy Jackson), Post-The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus), Sharing a Bed, and i love them, and they need to cope ok??, they are traumatized
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28859124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mypetersburg/pseuds/mypetersburg
Summary: Annabeth’s positive now that it’s got to be getting light outside, and she still hasn’t slept. Every time she closes her eyes, she forces them back open. Tartarus is back when her eyes are closed, when she so much as blinks, and she can’t take it.So she keeps them open.OR- The night after they return from Tartarus, Percy and Annabeth deal.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 95





	wisdom's daughter

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys!  
> This one is post House of Hades and pre Blood of Olympus. It's a scene after the end of HOH, wherein Percy and Annabeth have a sleepless night and try to cope with what happened to them. Hope you enjoy!

Annabeth thinks that she should be frightened of being left alone in the dark, but nothing will ever be dark to her again. Nothing will ever be like the darkness Nyx and her horrific children created.

But now, Percy’s not here to hold her hand.

Still, Annabeth thinks she can take it. The dark of her bunk is nothing like _that_ dark. She can sleep here without getting killed in the middle of the night. She can breathe without feeling like her lungs are on fire.

Her friends aren’t far away. If she needs them, she can go and get them. If she needs Percy, she can just go and get him.

Annabeth has tried her whole life not to be in the business of needing people. Time and time again, she’s been let down. Her father. Athena. Luke. But now, Annabeth’s been through enough to (begrudgingly) admit that she _needs_ people. Her fatal flaw is hubris, and it makes it hard to admit it, but she _can’t_ do everything alone.

More specifically, she’s ready to admit that she needs Percy.

For almost every quest she’s done, every place she’s gone, Percy’s been there with her. To the Underworld, to the Sea of Monsters, through the Labyrinth. The last few months without him were brutal, because having him around is the only thing that helps lighten the weight that’s perpetually sitting on her chest. She does things on her own- she held the sky, she got the Athena Parthenos, she got through _eight months_ without Percy. But everything else? _Tartarus_? No, Annabeth needs him. 

There’s not a lot of people Annabeth needs, but Percy’s one of them. He always has been. The limped through Tartarus together, and survived a dozen other trysts before that. They’re vital to each other.

The realization burns her eyes, but she won’t close them. It’s darker when they are, and she’d rather stay where the darkness isn’t so bad.

-

She doesn’t sleep. She thinks that she can hear Frank in his bunk, moving around, and guesses he can’t sleep either. Her friends went through a lot when she and Percy were gone, but some small part of her can’t help but think that she’s been through _more_. She was a dead girl walking for…well, for too long.

 _They won’t get it_ , she thinks bitterly, rolling over. _They’ll never get it_.

Inwardly, she scolds herself. Her friends are powerful, and they work hard. They went through their own hell, too. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as what happened to she and Percy, but. Everyone goes through something awful. Comparing them will get her nowhere.

Still. She wants to shout it at them, shake them and tell them that she went through _literal_ hell. She wants to tell them that her life since she’s been seven has been hell, that she’s seen some of the worst things she can imagine.

But she doesn’t. At least Nico understands what they went through, even if he isn’t here right now.

-

Annabeth’s positive now that it’s got to be getting light outside, and she still hasn’t slept. Every time she closes her eyes, she forces them back open. She’s terrified, but she _knows_ she shouldn’t be. She can’t stop herself, though. Tartarus is back when her eyes are closed, when she so much as _blinks_ , and she can’t take it.

The knock on her door almost sends her out of her skin.

“Hello?” She asks, already reaching for the sword Damasen gave her (her throat burns when she thinks of him).

There’s no response, but the door creaks open. Annabeth leaps from bed, holding her sword aloft, her heart in her throat.

It’s Percy. He’s standing there, his head down, his shoulders tense.

Annabeth lowers the sword, lets it clatter onto the ground as she crosses the room to him in a few swift steps.

“Percy?” She asks, her voice rough. “Percy? What’s the matter?”

He doesn’t say a word, just wraps her in a tight hug. She’s stunned for a moment, unmoving, but then he drops his head to her shoulder, gasping in a breath, and she unfreezes.

“Are you okay?” She asks, bringing up her arms to hug him back.

“I couldn’t sleep.” He says gruffly, and her chest seizes.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“I wanted to _prevent_ a nightmare.”

She doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t know how to tell him that she was doing the same thing (even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself).

The door’s still open, and faint light spills in from the hallway. Annabeth realizes what it could look like to her friends if they walk past and see the two of them clutching onto each other. She doesn’t want them to think that she’s damaged- she _needs_ them to think that she made it out of Tartarus whole, even if she didn’t.

Annabeth shuffles she and Percy around so she can lightly kick the door shut, but he won’t let go of her. His grip is strong, too strong, but she doesn’t _want_ him to let up. She needs to feel alive, she needs him as an anchor.

“Stay in here.” She says softly, rubbing at his back. “Hedge isn’t here, and no one’s going to hold it against us. Just stay.”

“Yeah.” He whispers, nodding against her. “Yeah, okay.”

He doesn’t let go, even after she does.

“Percy.” She taps his shoulder lightly. “You’ve got to let go.”

“Sorry,” he says, dropping his arms. She takes a moment to look at him once she’s stepped back.

His eyes are bloodshot and downcast, and her stomach twists. She looks away, taking him by the hand and pulling him to her bed.

They trip over the sword as they go, and Annabeth tries not to look at it as she bends and picks it up.

“We should’ve saved them.” Percy whispers resentfully, his voice thick. He crawls into her bed first, but she sits on the edge and carefully lies the sword down on her nightstand.

“We tried.” Annabeth says, not turning as she hears him shift in her blankets. Her bed is small, but that’s okay. She doesn’t think either of them are sleeping tonight, anyways.

“Annabeth,” he whispers. “I can’t…I’m so sorry.”

“For what?”

“The curses? Everything?”

She turns around harshly, glaring at him as he peers up at her. She tries not to notice how damaged he looks as anger floods her veins.

“ _Don’t_.” She all but snarls. “I don’t want to hear you apologize.”

He almost smiles, but she thinks that both of them are a little too far gone for smiles. In front of their friends, maybe. But not with each other- they don’t have to lie with each other.

“We have to deal with all of this eventually.” He says, and Annabeth almost rolls her eyes. If she were feeling up to it, she would. She really hates it when Percy’s smart. But she isn't. She isn't feeling up to anything right now. 

“I know.” She says, settling in the bed beside him. They lie shoulder to shoulder, staring up at the ceiling, and Percy slowly curves his arm around her waist and pulls her closer to him.

“But not tonight.” He says. “Another time.”

“I didn’t know if we’d make it out alive. And you…with Misery. The _poisons_ -”

“I know.” He tilts his cheek against the top of her head. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be okay again.” She admits, and it’s terrifying, but it’s him. She can say it to him. She can say anything to him.

“Me either.” He lifts a hand to smooth down her hair, readjusting their position so she’s pillowing her cheek on his chest, her arm thrown over him.

“But we’ve got so much left to do. We have to be okay again.” She whispers, and he shrugs beneath her, tracing circles on her hip with his thumb.

“We’ll be whatever we can. And then we’ll handle the rest later.”

“I miss Bob.” She confesses into his shirt. “I owe everything to him.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

She thinks that maybe he’s crying, so she squeezes him tighter. She thinks that maybe she’s crying, too.

“We’re alive.” She breathes. “That’s what matters. I’ve got you.”

“Yeah. Remember what I said? You’re never getting away from me again.”

She laughs wetly, suddenly feeling the tears on her cheeks. When she lifts her head to kiss him, she feels the tears on his cheeks, too.

“I love you,” he says, when she pulls away and presses her forehead to his.

“I love you too.” She whispers. “We’re going to make it.”

“Always do.” He says, and she nods.

He’s right. They always do make it, even if it’s hard. Even if every step feels like dying.

They’re not in Tartarus anymore. There’s no monster lurking in the shadow of the room. There’s no Titans on their heels. They’re not facing their past sins, not now.

She lies down again, clinging to him with all she’s got.

-

Neither of them sleep, just grip to each other, and Hazel won’t look them in the eyes after she comes to fetch them in the morning. Leo’s smile is too wide, Frank’s constantly averting his eyes, and Piper and Jason look at them both with too much sympathy.

“How are you feeling?” Piper asks, after she and Percy have been too quiet for too long. She thinks that maybe everyone’s been talking, but she’s been zoning out, poking at her breakfast.

Annabeth looks down at the table from her seat, glancing at Percy beside her.

His face is how it always looks- which, to everyone else is intimidating, but not her- but she can see that his eyes are guarded.

“We’ll make it.” Annabeth finally says. She glances at Percy, and the thankful look he shoots her confirms her answer was correct. Under the table, he nudges her foot with his, pressing their legs together.

Last night, a few hours after they were done talking and were instead just lying in silence, he cried. It was quiet and he was clearly trying to hide it, but she felt his shoulders as they shook. She heard the tiny, broken breaths he drew. She had comforted him the best she could, shushed him and kissed him and told him that she was here, always here.

And they made it to the morning. Here they are, eating breakfast while Leo smiles too brightly (though something happened to him, too. Annabeth’s sure of it).

She and Percy might not be okay again, but they’ll make it.

She doesn’t have to be alone. It’s okay that she can’t do this herself. She’ll always have him, and she can definitely make do with that. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks a bunch for reading! Always appreciate it :)!
> 
> (Side note- HOH is the best Heroes of Olympus book, and I'm confident in that.)


End file.
